I have written about maps of the Internet a number of times here and here on the Bach Seat. The latest is the beautiful “Map of the Internet 2021.” The map was published by Martin Vargic, a Slovak artist and author. It is a brand new fully updated map of the internet. It is available at halcyonmaps.com.
This 21st century map is inspired by historical maps. Mr. Vargic concisely, and comprehensively visualizes the current state of the World Wide Web. He documents the largest and most popular websites on the during Internet 2020-2021.
Compared to previous maps of the Internet, this new version is more detailed and informative. It includes thousands of the most popular websites. Websites are represented as “countries.” The Internet countries are grouped together with similar sites. The groups form regions and continents like “news sites”, “search engines”, “social networks”, “e-commerce”, “adult entertainment”, “file sharing”, “software companies” and more.
What is on the Map of the Internet 2021
At the center of the map are ISPs and web browsers. Because they form the core and backbone of the internet. Color schemes of websites are based on the dominant colors of their user interface or logo. To add further detail, Mr. Vargic labels features and content creators as over 10 thousand cities and towns.
The map pays tribute to Internet personalities as well. Website founders and CEOs are represented as capital cities. Popular users of social networks and celebrities can be found in the realms of Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter. Some of the most important Internet and computing pioneers are featured on the map in the names of underwater ridges.
Relative territorial sizes of websites on the map are based on their average Alexa web traffic ranking between January 2020 and January 2021. When the map is updated it will provide an unprecedented visualization to the future generations of how internet used to be.
Many countries still have many thriving domestic sites and social networks specific to their region, including Iran, Russia, Japan, India, Indonesia ,South Korea, but especially China.
Chinese Internet
In the last decade, the Chinese Internet user-base has grown rapidly. The Chinese government blocks most major international sites such as Google, Youtube and Facebook with the great firewall. This has allowed China to develop an independent domestic ecosystem of websites of all types. Some Chinese Internet sites such as Weibo, Baidu, Tmall and QQ, some of which have grown to rival sites as Google or Facebook in their sheer number of visitors and activity. However their presence outside of mainland China is almost nonexistent, mostly for linguistic and cultural reasons.
Mr. Vargic says that this Map of the Internet was inspired by the “Map of Online Communities“ by Randall Munroe.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.